- Minimize eating, drinking, or smoking behind the wheel;
- Turn off your cell phone while driving or put on silence your phone notifications;
- Take the time and stop on some of the many truck stops on the road;
- Know your route before driving. For that you can use a voice assisted GPS unit, one of the many trucker applications designed to make truckers life easier or any other electronic gadgets good for truckers. If you still don’t have one of those fancy ones, then just have a look at your old school map before you start driving, but get familiar and informed with the road you are going to take.
10. Know What To Do When You’re Caught In A Skid
Do you know what to do if you start to skid? After all this is one of the dangers of truck driving in winter, in inclement weather, especially a big truck! But here are a few tips that might help you.
- First off all, don’t slam the brakes; remember your loaded truck weighs about 80,000 pounds;
- Try tapping the brakes, but don’t hold them until it is straight and safe to do so;
- Driving coaches recommend turning the wheel (not jerking the wheel) back and forth to try and slow your momentum;
- You can let your engine do the breaking for you, use the clutch (but try not to kill your engine);
- Especially in bad weather, try to keep your truck away from the downhill side as much as realistically possible;
- Always scan to see if in the event of an issue you have a path to turn to.
I won’t say all these are the perfect solutions and they all won’t work in every situation, but they will help you. The best things to do are maintaining proper control, speed, and pay attention to what’s going on around you.
